ROTTERDAM SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT, ERASMUS UNIVERSITY

2nd Quarter 2010

Management Knowledge

ROTTERDAM SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT, ERASMUS UNIVERSITY

Leadership in Why innovative Are women more Viral marketing
times of crisis business loyal customers can be a safe bet
projects fail than men?
by Rob van Tulder by Ralf van der Lans,
by Henk W. Volberda, Frans by Stijn van Osselaer, Gerrit van Bruggen,
A. J. Van Den Bosch & Valentyna Melnyk & Tammo Jehoshua Eliashberg
J. Henri Burgers H. A. Bijmolt & Berend Wierenga

Are women more loyal
customers than men? 

by Stijn van Osselaer, Valentyna Melnyk & Tammo H. A. Bijmolt

For almost every company the retention of customers and companies, specifically in determining
the creation of customer loyalty is a huge driver of profits. where the balance of power lies in
If an organisation were able to increase customer retention customer relationships.
by just 1%, such an improvement would have a significant What we found is that men are loyal
impact on profitability. to a company – an entity. Take a high
street bank, for example. For men, it
But what are the underlying factors of interdependent with individuals, and doesn’t matter all that much who the
loyalty? Significant research has been men with groups. person is that provides the service: the
conducted over the years on this very At first glance this is far removed relationship is with the bank. However,
subject, and at a basic human level from the world of business. However, for women the relationship is not with
we’re often told that in personal they are linked, inextricably, and what the organisation, but centres instead
relationships ‘women are more loyal we’ve sought to do is determine what on individual service providers.
than men’. At a psychological level drives customer loyalty in men versus The customer service representative
we’re also told that women are women. The questions we posed were: at the bank, a specific hairdresser,
more interdependent as people Are men less loyal generally as doctor, and so on, are to what female
whereas men are considered to be customers? Or, if women are more customers are loyal. Look at that from
more independent. loyal to individuals - for example, to the organisation’s point of view and
Both of these theories would lead individual sales people and service suddenly the power balance of the
us to believe that, generally speaking, providers - then are men more loyal to customer relationship is very firmly in
women are more loyal than men. groups and group-like entities such as the hands of the individual employee.
There is another theory though, which retail chains? So powerful can this relationship be
that if the individual service provider
“Our findings show that organisations ought leaves your organisation, then your
to reconsider the marketing strategies used in customer may leave as well. For
developing relationships with their customers.” employers, when that individual comes
to you and says they would like a pay
states that everyone, regardless of Apart from providing further rise, or tells you that they are leaving
gender, has a strong need to belong. understanding of what it is that makes to work elsewhere, there’s much more
But, what they need to belong to is customers tick, the implications revealed at stake for you than just filling a
different. Women, we find, are by our findings are quite significant for vacancy, especially if they are in a work
environment where they have many
women customers.
To expound further: you will rarely
come across a menswear shop run by
just one or two people. However, it’s
very common to find such boutiques

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for women. Women tend to have close loyal to the individual than to the group, the status that comes from association
customer relationships with their expressing the certainty that they would or participation with the service.
hairdresser – men typically do not. They terminate their relationship with the For women, the message needs to
might be loyal to a specific establishment, organisation if the individual service express the individuality aspects and
but usually not to the hairdresser. provider left. Once more, exactly the show that as individuals they are valued.
To reach our conclusions we opposite results came from the men Being thought of as just another number
conducted five experiments of varying who expressed much more commitment or being seen as another faceless
complexity. In the simplest scenarios to the organisation than they did to person in a crowd is not what women
we presented people with options that the individual. want. Instead, they want you to make
would test their loyalty. For example: For organisations, our findings them feel uniquely special..
you need to buy a birthday cake for mean that they ought to reconsider
work colleagues. You can buy it from a the marketing strategies used in Stijn van Osselaer is Professor of
nearby bakery or cycle 10 minutes, developing relationships with their Marketing, and Chair - Department of
through the rain, to a shop run by an customers and adapt them along Marketing Management, Rotterdam
acquaintance from school. Which would gender-loyalty lines. School of Management, Erasmus
you choose? The same scenario was Marketers should make sure to treat University. Email: [email protected]
also set, but with three acquaintances women as individuals and encourage
at the bakery, not one. these one-on-one relationships. Valentyna Melnyk is Senior Lecturer in
Women, our results showed, were However, organisations also need to Marketing, Waikato Management School,
much more likely to cycle through the understand that the balance of power University of Waikato, New Zealand.
rain – if there was one person at the in the customer-client relationship will Email: [email protected]
bakery that they knew, but not if there then lie with the individual providing
were three. The results were the the service. Tammo H.A. Bijmolt is Professor of
opposite for men – they would make When reflecting these gender Marketing Research, Department of
the extra effort for a group, but not a differences in advertising, for men Marketing, University of Groningen.
single person. organisations should look to portray Email: [email protected]
A second study saw us conducting and reinforce the group aspects and
surveys on the streets of a city. We
asked people specific questions about
their relationships with individual service
providers and groups that provided
services: for example, ‘how loyal are
you to your dentist?’ versus ‘how loyal
are you to your dental practice?’
It became clear, as it did with our
other studies, that women are more

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